ohh, you make my motor run, my motor run

Best performing single of the summer of 1979, The Knack was awarded a Gold Record for selling a million copies on this day of their breakthrough year, the fastest assent of any song since the Beatles in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Written by bandmates Beron Averre and Doug Fieger, it was sort of a courtship of Sharona Alperin, who was initially opposed to the use of her name but posed for the cover and went on to eventually become Fieger’s girlfriend and fiancee. Parodied as “My Bologna” with the approval of The Knack, the song also helped launch the career of “Weird Al” Yankovic.